There are certain people in our communities who put themselves at risk in providing an essential service. You mentioned transit workers. First responders are an obvious choice to include. Before I articulate the reasons behind this change, I want to say a thank you to my Manitoba counterpart, Matt Wiebe, for helping to advocate this. We also have a Senate bill coming through on very similar measures that are attacking the same social harm.
Think about what it means to expect a person to go to a job where they are harassed and assaulted routinely. We would have an expectation that they're going to be at their very best in delivering public safety outcomes. I want to say thank you to every police officer and every first responder in our community, the paramedics and firefighters who are facing ungodly working conditions. If we can offer additional protection that may cause a person to think twice before assaulting a first responder in the line of duty, I think it's incumbent upon us to take that opportunity to make first responders' lives a little easier and in turn make Canada a bit safer.